The concept of using Automated Teller Machines (ATM's) has, in the past few years, become commonplace for the withdrawal of funds from a person's checking or savings account at any time, whether or not the bank is open or closed. Using an ATM, a person can even obtain cash from his or her credit card at any time of the day or night.
The several ATM systems in the USA, and indeed around the world, have been interlinked so that a person can travel to virtually any place and by inserting a card in an ATM machine and, supplying a preassigned Personal Identification Number (PIN) password, can request an amount of money from the account associated with the inserted card. Other transactions can also be performed during the same session, all by interaction with the ATM system.
In order to accomplish the desired transaction, the user enters numbers on a key pad, or pushes other buttons, all in response to displayed prompts. The prompts can be in English or in other languages selected by the user.
One basic concept of the present systems are that they require the user to have a preestablished account with a preissued card and with a preexisting PIN. The account can be a bank savings or checking account or can be a money market account or it can be a credit (or debit) card account, or it can be any one of a variety of other account types. With some of the accounts, the user already has an established sum of money in the account, and with others, the money is deposited (credited) when the user makes a withdrawal from the account.
One problem that the new system and method solves is based on the proposition that a particular user desires to transfer money to someone else (a child, for example) in a distant city where neither the user nor the child has an account.
A second problem that the new system solves supposes that the user does have an account which is accessible from an ATM machine but the child in the distant city does not have an ATM card for that account.
A third problem is presented by those who are traveling but do not wish to buy and carry travelers checks and also do not wish to carry large amounts of cash. This problem assumes the traveler does not have (and does not wish to establish) a preestablished ATM account. The existing ATM system does not presently solve any of these problems which are but a symptom of the more general problem of currency transfer. Today, in order to move currency from one place to another, the systems and methods do not differ much from those of many years ago. For example, a person can take cash to a wire transfer office (such as are maintained by Western Union) and have money wired to a wire transfer office in the city where the recipient is located. This supposes that one even knows where such offices are located and that the offices are open. Since emergencies do not obey 9 to 5 (or even 7 to midnight) hours, and since people without funds tend also to be without a means of transportation to get to the nearest wire transfer office (even assuming they could find one), the present wire transfer systems are, at best, cumbersome. These problems are compounded under the existing systems by time zone differences.
The cost to establish an electronic network similar to the existing ATM network is enormous. Thus, any solution to the problem must rely, to some extent, on the existing ATM network which does not, today, accommodate those without accounts and without valid ATM cards.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a currency transfer system which will allow any person to instantly and electronically transfer currency to any other person even if neither person has a preestablished account and even if neither person has a preissued ATM card.
A further need in the art is for a system which will allow for the instant transfer of currency between distant people without preestablished ATM accounts and ATM cards while still taking advantage of the existing ATM network.